Narcissus miniatus and others

[Tony Willis]

Arthur

beautiful pictures as have been all the others in the other threads.

[Paul T]

Arthur and Gerd,

Some beautiful pics of some beautiful species and hybrids.  Thank you very much!!  The last of the daffs are over here I think (maybe a last flower or two on N. bulbocodium serotinues) so great to see more, particularly the autumn species which are so new to me.  Now I'm getting impatient for my miniatus seedlings from Hans J to get to flowering size.  You're providing great inspiration!! 

[Gail]

First seed to germinate this year for me is a potful of Narcissus miniatus coming up like mustard and cress on the laundry room windowsill.  Having worked my way through this thread I can't wait for them to bloom!

[Rafa]

I forgot to mentioned that Narcissus x perez-larae Font Quer is a fertil species in certain localities in Valencia, and we currently name this new nomospecies under name Narcissus piifontianus in honor to our botanist Pio Font Quer.

Maybe It coud be possible the same case in Narcissus x alentejanus, Im sure there is in any part Portugal, Extremadura... same evolution proceess.

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

A couple of rather late postings (they flowered for me in March) of my first ever flowering of Narcissus miniatus from seed (seed from an SRGCer too, you know who you are.  Thanks!).  Only 3 flowers so far, but I am so pleased with them.  I don't know whether the difference in how spidery the flowers were to do with their location or not, but 2 flowers were very spidery and the other was very broad.  Are they variance within the species, or just related to the health of the bulb and therefore the size of the flower?

Whatever the reason, I was VERY pleased to have them, particularly as they were from seed from a friend.

[Hans J]

Congratulations Paul 

Hans

[Paul T]

Thank you Hans.  It was nice to successfully flower them, to show that the seed wasn't wasted by being sent here.  I've not grown a lot of Narcissus from seed, so it was an achievement to get this new (for me) species to flowering.

[Maggi Young]

Great miniatus flowers, Paul... how long is that from seed?  I expect they will go on to do well for you having made this good a start. 

[Paul T]

Maggi,

I'll look it up tomorrow and see how long it was.  The one with the broader flower was an accident, in that it obviously got tossed in with the recycled mix or something as it flowered somewhere unexpectedly.  When I saw buds emerging I thought it was going to be a viridiflora (also not supposed to be in that spot) so was very surprised when I discovered a white flower open and realised what it was.    The pot of them had it's flowers open a couple of days later.... I had been watching the 2 scapes emerging and was waiting for them to open, but they were beaten by the other one.

[Rogan]

Lovely Daff, Paul. I do not often have much success with germinating Narcissus seed, and have often wondered if this could be due to insufficient cooling of the seed after sowing? I have had great success soaking seed of various things, e.g. Placea, Cyclamen and Polyanthus, in the fridge for a week, changing the water every day and then sowing. I would like to try this with Narcissus too and see if it makes any difference in germination percentages.

[Paul T]

Rogan,

I just leave mine outside for the winter, so they get plenty of cold in that regard (but not too much either, thankfully).  One of these years we're going to get back to our historic winter temps and a lot of things are going to struggle with that few extra degrees (^oC) more cold.   

[annew]

Well done, Paul, a lovely narcissus. Always an achievement to flower a bulb from seed, but very special when it's something like that.

[Paul T]

Thanks Anne.

[Kees Green]

I have to agree with everyone else Paul, and I like the two distinct types you have.
I dont like hearing all the talk about the lack of success with Narcissus seedlings to flower. I currently have about 300 first year seedlings up this year, all but a dozen or so are hoops. I also have about 50 second year bulbocodium seedlings up and a few others. Last year was the first year I really started to collect seed for growing.
From what I get from reading the forum last year I thought that they were very easy to grow from seeds, it appears that the hoops are anyway.

[annew]

No, I agree with you, Kees. They are relatively easy from seed - the achievement in most cases is being patient for 3-4 years until the exciting bit starts!